Machine for inserting fastenings.



P. L. MACKENZIE- MACHINE FOE INSERTING FASTENINGS.

APPLICATION IILED. APR. 30, 1910.

Patented May 19, 1914.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRED L. MACKENZIE, F BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T0 UNITED SHOE MACHINERY COMPANY, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

MACHINE FOR INSERTING FASTENINGS.

To all whom it may concern Belt known that I, FRED L. MACKENZIE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Beverly, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Im- 1 tenings of the type known to the trade as loose nailing machines.

A general object of the invention is to provide in machines of the aforementioned type improved means for delivering to the inserting mechanism a single nail.

A particular object of the invention is to improve the construction and operation of nail delivering mechanisms of the type disclosed in U. S. Letters Patent to George Goddu, 1,033,313, granted July 23, 1912, for improvements in machines for inserting fastenings. In the machine of the said Letters Patent the nail delivering mechanism comprises a raceway arranged to oscillate between a nail receiving and a nail delivering position, and a nail receiving ledge adjacent to the driver passage upon which the raceway is arranged to deposit a single nail as it comes into nail delivering position,

means being also provided for moving this I nail into the driver passage as the driver, which has been depressed at the time the nail is deposited upon the ledge, is raised for the nail driving operation.

The movement of the raceway from nail receivin to nail delivering position is preferably e ected after the nail driving operation, and the movement is from an inclined nail receiving position into an inclined nail delivering position. In order to insure the delivery of a single nail to the driver passage, it is important that the nails be properly positioned in the raceway at the time they slide down the incline to bring the endmost nail upon the nail receiving ledge, and it is therefore important that provision be made for preventing overriding of the nails which are in the raceway and for preventing nails which are not in Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 30, 1910.

Patented May 19, 1914.

Seria1 No. 553,573.

the raceway from getting in the way of the movement of those nails which are in the raceway.

An object of the invention, therefore, is to provide improved means for preventing such overriding of the nails in the raceway and for reventing clogging of the raceway or inter erence with the movement of the nails in the raceway, especially near the point at which the nail separating operation .takes place.

The machine of the Letters Patent is particularly designed to be operated by foot power and to be used upon repair shop work which demands usually frequent changes in the lengths of the nails employed, and it is therefore important that the nail delivering mechanism be so constructed that it will operate with equal eiiiciency with nails of different lengths.

Another object of the invention, therefore, is the improvement of the nail delivering mechanism with this end in view.

To provide for the reception in the driver passage of both long and short nails, it is essential that the nail receiving opening in the driver passage be long enough to receive the longest nails which it is desired to use in the machine. Moreover, to keep any part of the nail from moving out of the driver passage during the nail delivering operation, it is important that the nail receiving opening be substantially closed as the nail is moved into the driver passage.

As above suggested, means is preferably provided for insuring the movement of the nail into the driver passage as the driver rises to clear this passage. The illustrated means comprises a separator having a wedge-shaped end which enters between the shank of the nail resting upon the nail receiving ledge and the shank of the adjacent nail in the raceway, the wedge being so inclined that during the transverse movement of the separator the nail is moved toward the driver passage and the nail receiving opening is then closed by a substantially plane face of the separator lying behind the wedge-shaped portion.

To prevent the lateral tipping of the nail which is supported upon the nail receiving ledge, the separator preferably operates in a groove below this ledge of such width that the lower end of the shank of the nail bears against a side wall of the nail receiving opening into the driver passage and is thus held against lateral movement by the separator. It will be seen, however, that if the separator blade is of such a width throughout that provision is made for closing the nail receiving opening, or substantially closing this opening, after the nail delivering operation in a machine adapted to handle long nails, the groove provided to receive this separator will be so wide as to permit the shanks of the shorter nails to be moved into it and thus out of line with the nail receiving opening in the driver passage. To prevent this operation when the machine is used with short nails and at the same time to adapt the machine for use with long nails, a feature of the invention is the provision of a. separator blade which is so constructed that the wedge-shaped portion is considerably narrower than the portion which serves to close the nail receiving opening, the wedge being upon that portion which forms the upper part of the separator blade so that it enters between the shanks of the two nails to be separated near their heads and thus causes the greatest separating movement of these nails. Vith a separator thus constructed, the groove for the separating portion may be of such a width that there will be no danger of displacement of the shanks of short nails during the sepa-' rating operation.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 is a perspective detail of so much of the machine of the co-pending application above referred to as is essential to illustrate the application of the present invention thereto; Fig. 2 is a perspective detail similar to Fig. 1, but showing the parts in different position; and Fig. 3 is a perspective detail illustrating the construction and mode of operation of the nail separator.

For convenience in understanding the in vention, the reference characters employed in the following description will be the same, so far as possible, as those employed in designating like parts in the Letters Patent above referred to, and for a complete understanding of the construction of the machine as a whole reference should be had to the said co-pending application.

The raceway 76 which is movable between an inclined nail receiving position and an inclined nail delivering position is carried upon one end of a rock-shaft 74. The nails to be delivered to the inserting mechanism are received in and guided by a groove 78 in the upper side of the raceway 76, this groove being open at its end adjacent to the driver passage 30 to permit the endmost nail to be deposited upon a nail receiving ledge 80 adjacent to the driver passage, an opening 81 into the driver passage permitting the nail to be moved from the ledge '80 into the driver passage when the driver is moved from the position shown in Fig. 1 to the position shown in Fig. 2.

As shown in Fig. 1, the nail to be deliv ered to the inserting mechanism is deposited upon the nail receiving ledge 80 when the driver is in its lowermost position, the movement of the raceway from nail receiving to nail delivering position taking place after the nail driving operation. To insure the movement of the nail from the ledge 80 into the driver passage 30 as the driver 31 is raised for the nail driving operation, a separator 82 is provided. The separator 82 is carried upon a cylindrical slide 84: guided in a transverse opening in the machine head and is yieldingly moved in the direction of its operative movement by a spring 86 connected at one end to a pin on the machine head and at its other end to a pin 90 upon the slide.

The rock-shaft M has attached to its end remote from the raceway a hub 92 held in position by a set screw 94:, said hub having formed integral with it a cam 96 which enters a lateral recess in the slide 84, the shoulder 98 at one end of this recess being maintained normally in contact with said cam by the action of the spring 86. It will be seen, however, that if the movement of the separator 8:2 is impeded, as by its engagement with a nail resting against the driver, the cam 96 will move away from the shoulder 98 as the raceway moves from nail delivering toward nail receiving position, the lateral recess in the slide 84: being long enough to provide for such relative movement of the cam and slide. Also integral with the hub 92 is is a crank arm 100 having clamped in its outer end, by a set screw 102, a headed crank pin 104 upon which turns a link 106, more fully shown and described in the co-pending application above referred to.

To prevent nails from overriding each other and to prevent nails which are not in the raceway from lying crosswise on the raceway or in other ways interfering with the movements of the nails which are properly seated in the raceway, a cover is provided for the end of the raceway which is adjacent to the ledge 80, this cover being preferably so constructed and arranged that it not only prevents interference with the nails at the nail delivering end of the raceway but that it also conducts away from the line of nails in the raceway those nails which tend to override the other nails and also those nails which lie crosswise of the race way.

The illustrated cover comprises vertical extensions 160 and 162 of the side plates which form the raceway 7 6, these extensions being preferably concentric with the axis of oscillation of the raceway. The groove formed by the extensions 160 and 162 is of the same width as the raceway groove and to permit the heads of the nails which are properly seated in the raceway to pass beneath the raceway cover lateral grooves 164 and 166 are formed in the respective extensions 160 and 162 where these extensions join the main part of the side plates which form the raceway 7 6. The curved form of the extensions 160 and 162 causes them to incline away from the raceway proper so that as the raceway moves from nail receiving to nail delivering position those nails which have their shanks in the raceway but the heads of which have not become properly seated in the raceway will ride up the incline with their shanks extending into the groove formed between the extensions 160 and 162 and thus be conducted above and away from the line of properly positioned nails. In a similar way nails which lie crosswise of the raceway proper will be guided up and away from the line of nails in the raceway, as shown in Fig. 1.

As hereinabove suggested, the separating mechanism is so constructed that it will operate either with long or short nails. To this end, in the illustrated construction, the groove 170, below the ledge in which the wedge-shaped end of the separator is guided after it passes the nail, is of such a width from top to bottom that the shank of the shortest nail which the machine is adapted to handle will project below the bottom of the groove when the head of the nail is resting upon the ledge 80. The width of the wedge-shaped end of the separator corresponds, of course, to the width of the guiding groove 170 and this construction of the separator and its guiding groove keeps the separator from pushing the shank of the nail into the groove 170 and thus out of line with the opening 81 as the separator moves between the shank of the nail which rests upon the ledge 80 and the shank of the last nail in the raceway. It will be noted, how ever, that if the separator as a whole is only wide enough to move in the groove 170 a considerable portion of the opening 81 in the driver passage 30 will be uncovered after the separating operation, this opening being necessarily long enough to accommodate the longest nails for which the machine is adapted. To avoid leaving so much of this opening uncovered and thereby to prevent a nail from being caught at the lower end of the opening, which might cause clogging of the machine, the wall of the opening on the side from which the separator moves is cut down to permit a wider portion of the separator blade to come in behind the nail after the wedge-shaped portion has moved it into the driver passage and to close the opening into the driver passage.

The wedge-shaped portion ofthe separator blade, which is the narrow pOltiOlniS shown at 172 in Fig. 3. Behind this is the wider portion of the separator blade, the overlapping end 174 of this portion abutting against the wall of the opening into the driver passage below the groove 170 to limit the operative movement of the separator under the action of the spring 86.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. In a machine of the class described, a nail raceway arranged to turn about an axis from a nail receiving position into a nail delivering position, said axis being nearer the delivery end of said raceway, andmeans for preventing misplaced nails from reaching the delivery end of said raceway, comprising a cover for said end having a nail receiving groove adapted to conduct the misplaced nails above the line of properly placed nails, as the raceway moves into nail delivering position, and to return said misplaced nails either to said raceway, or to the source of supply, as the raceway again moves into nail receiving position.

2. In a machine of the class described, a nail raceway arranged to turn about an axis from a nail receiving position into a nail delivering position, said axis being nearer the delivery end of said raceway, and a cover for the delivery end of said raceway pro vided with a nail guiding groove concentric with the axis of turning, said groove being arranged to receive from said raceway those nails which are misplaced in or upon said raceway, and to conduct said misplaced nails above the line of properly placed nails as the raceway moves into nail delivering position and to return said nails either to the raceway, or to the source of supply, as the raceway returns to nail receiving position.

3. In a machine of the class described, an oscillating nail raceway arranged to move between a nail receiving position in which the raceway is inclined toward the source of supply and a nail delivering position in which the raceway is inclined toward the point at which the nails are to be delivered, and means to prevent misplaced nails from reaching the delivery end or" said raceway, comprising a cover positioned to protect said end, said cover being provided with a groove of the dimensions of the nail groove in the raceway, which groove is so arranged that it receives the overriding nails and conducts them above the line of properly placed nails in the raceway, as the raceway moves into nails either to the raceway, or to the source nail delivering position and returns the said of supply, as the raceway returns to nail receiving position.

4:. In a machine of the class described, a nail raceway arranged to turn about an axis from a nail receiving position in which the of said cover, as the raceway moves into nail delivering position, and to permlt said nails 15 to be returned either to the raceway, or to the source of supply, as the raceway is inclined into nail receiving position.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of 20 two subscribing witnesses.

FRED L. MACKENZIE.

lVitnesses:

H. DORSEY SPENCER, GEORGE GoDDU.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. O.

Corrections in Letters Patent No. 1,097,248.

It is hereby certified that in Letters Patent N 0. 1,097 ,248, granted May 19, 1914,

upon the application of Fred L. MacKenzie, of Beverly, Massachusetts, for an improvement in Machines for Inserting Fastenings, errors appear in the printed specification requiring correction as follows: Page 2, line 52, for the Words copending application read Letters Patent; same page, line 104, second occurrence, strike out the word is; page 3, transpose lines 124 and 125; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with these corrections therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 11th day of August, A. D., 191e,

J. T. NEWTON, Acting Commissioner of Patents.

[SEAL] 

